Differential regional expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor following olfactory fear learning

We examined brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA expression across the olfactory system following fear conditioning. Mice received 10 pairings of odor with footshock or equivalent unpaired odors and shocks. We found increased BDNF mRNA in animals receiving paired footshocks in the multiple regions examined including the posterior piriform cortex (PPC) and basolateral amygdala (BLA). This was in contrast to the unpaired and odor-alone treatments, where BDNF mRNA was increased in the olfactory bulb (OB) and anterior piriform cortex (APC) only, but not the higher olfactory areas. We propose that odor exposure increases expression of BDNF in the OB and APC while the PPC and BLA increase BDNF mRNA only when associative learning occurs. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a member of the neurotrophin family that has been shown to play a role in learn-ing and memory (Tyler et al. 2002; Rattiner et al. 2005). Besides its neurotrophic activity, BDNF, working through its primary re-ceptor TrkB, is involved in a number of downstream effects re-lated to learning including long-term synaptic plasticity (Lohof et al. 1993; Korte et al. 1995), morphological changes in dendritic spines (Tyler and Pozzo-Miller 2003; Rex et al. 2007), gene tran